Obama Listen Up – No Torture, No New War Authority, No Expanding Guantanamo

Retired Admirals and Generals to Senate: No Torture, No New War Authority, No Expanding Guantanamo
For Immediate Release: June 15, 2011

Washington, D.C.—Today, members of a non-partisan group of forty retired generals and admirals addressed a letter to Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) urging the Senators to oppose several controversial provisions to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that may appear in the upcoming mark up by the Senate Armed Services Committee today and tomorrow. The members believe that the United States’ national security policies should adhere to our domestic and international legal obligations.

The letter asks Senator Levin and Senator McCain to oppose any effort to return to torture of terrorism suspects, or so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques”, which are “counterproductive, unreliable, immoral and illegal.” The signatories also oppose the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that passed in the House of Representatives’ National Defense Authorization Act, which expands the war on terror worldwide and cedes Congress’ war making decision authority to the President. Members also oppose provisions that passed in the House NDAA that would require that all future foreign terror suspects be sent to Guantánamo or tried before a military commission.

“There are several provisions of the NDAA that may significantly weaken our counterterrorism operations and undermine our national security. Strong policies adhere to the rule of law and American values,” said Human Rights First’s C. Dixon Osburn. …source